LETTER: Why I am voting ‘No’ on Question 1

Thursday

Oct 4, 2018 at 8:00 AMOct 5, 2018 at 9:51 AM

This Letter to the Editor was featured in the Oct. 4 print edition of the Arlington Advocate.

Letters to the Editor are due by 9 a.m. on Monday to arlington@wickedlocal.com. Please keep letters to 400 words or less and include the name, street and phone number of author. Phone numbers are not published.

I am a nurse with 20 years of experience in Massachusetts and California hospitals. In California, patient care has been constrained by nurse staffing rations since 2004. In November, when citizens of Massachusetts go to vote, they need to understand why Question 1 on mandated nursing staffing ratios is wrong for nurses, for patients and for Massachusetts.

Every day, nurses across the commonwealth are making ongoing judgements to determine what number of nurses they need in their units in order to provide the best care possible to those patients and their families. Nurse staffing is complex and nuanced, but nurses use their knowledge, experience and expertise to make these decisions.

In truth, Question 1 was written and proposed by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, a labor union, not a professional nursing organization. They are not the voice for nursing practice and in truth only represent about 23 percent of all Massachusetts nurses. The MNA has positioned this bill as a driver of quality care, yet we all know Massachusetts is already a recognized health care quality mecca in the United States; we pride ourselves on this. In fact, Massachusetts hospitals consistently rank far above California hospitals in quality metrics.

The reasons that supporters of Question 1 give do not make sense. You can say it’s about staffing, yet our nurse staffing ranks with the best in the nation. You can say it’s about money, yet our nurses are the second and third highest paid in the nation. You can say it’s about employee engagement, yet Massachusetts has five of the top 25 hospitals in the nation that score highest on employee engagement. You can say it’s about safety, yet we are constantly ranked among the top in the nation. You can say it’s about burnout, yet we have some of the lowest turnover rates of nurses in the nation.

What is this really about?

That is a question I cannot answer but know it is not about the issues as they have been advertised. Given all of this, I ask you all to question the motivation of the bill, get informed and understand why it is so important to vote “NO” on Nov. 6.

Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted.
The Arlington Advocate ~ 9 Meriam St., Lexington, Massachusetts 02420 ~ Privacy Policy ~ Terms Of Service